Greg Child

Gregory "Greg" Child, born on 1957.04.12, Australian climber, mountaineer, author and film maker, who ascended Gasherbrum IV in 1986, K2 in 1990 and Everest in 1995. He has authored several books: "Thin Air: Encounters in the Himalayas", "Mixed Emotions: Mountaineering Writings of Greg Child", "Postcards from the Ledge", "Over the Edge" and "Climbing Free". In 1987, Child was honoured with the American Alpine Club’s Literacy Award for his prolific and insightful mountaineering literature. In 2011 Child was President of the Jury for the Piolets d'Or.

During Greg's 30-year climbing career, he's conquered 5.13 routes, A5 big walls and the highest peaks in the Himalaya, namely Everest and K2. Greg's climbing roots lead back to his native Australia, where he was a teenage collector of snakes. When a deadly tiger snake bit him, he turned to safer activities- such as rock climbing. As a teenager he did many first ascents of free climbs on the notoriously difficult cliffs on Mount Arapiles, and even today he maintains a high level of free climbing. In 2002, he established a spectacular multi-pitch 5.13 first ascent called Excommunication on a desert tower called the Priest. After taking up residence in America in 1980, he made his mark in Yosemite with two new routes on El Capitan. Big walls led to travels to the Himalaya, to which he has made 13 mountaineering expeditions. More recently he has turned to exploratory mountaineering. In 1999, he trekked through a remote jungle in Northeast India to seek out unclimbed peaks on the Indo-Tibet border, and his team became the first Westerners to encounter the Bungaroo people of the upper Kurung Valley. His most recent adventure was a 120-mile lightweight backpacking traverse of Comb Ridge, a stretch of the Arizona-Utah desert that encompasses the heartlands of the ancient, and vanished, Anasazi Indian culture. He has recorded his career in books, photographs, TV documentaries and articles for magazines such as Outside,National Geographic, and Climbing.

. Winner of an Emmy for video in Hitting the Wall, 1998 . First ascent of Great Snail Peak in Baffin Island, 1998 . Winner of Banff Mountain Festival Book Award for Postcards From the Ledge, 1997 . Ascent of North Ridge of Everest, 1995 . First ascent of Wall of Shadows on Mount Hunter in Alaska, 1994 . New route on Trango Tower (20,500 ft.) in Pakistan, 1992 . Oxygenless ascent of K2 North Ridge, 1990 . First ascent of Northwest Ridge of Gasherbrum IV (26,000 ft.) in Pakistan, 1986 . Himalayan successes include a new route on Shivling (21,500 ft.) in India, 1981 . Two first ascents on El Capitan: Aurora and Lost in America

Greg Child quotes

Somewhere between the bottom of the climb and the summit is the answer to the mystery why we climb. Greg Child

If we ever have children and they become climbers I'll tell them, "Stay away from expeditions. They'll make you poor and neurotic. Greg Child

Maybe Himalayan climbing is just a bad habit, like smoking, of which one says with cavalier abandon, 'must give this up some day, before it kills me.Greg Child

The mountain is nothing without people on it. Often you part expedition exasperated, but a year or two later you go back with the same partners knowing there's potential in this human relationship.Greg Child

Near the foot of the mountain we visited a yogi who dwelled in a hollow tunneled beneath a boulder. He pondered our notion of climbing Shivling and said: 'First travel, then struggle, finally calm.Greg Child